Human headline, talent to Bern

Linda Pearce

Published: January 12 2013 - 3:00AM

Linda Pearce talks to Australia's most topical player, a rare talent with an uncanny knack for finding controversy.

THERE is a lot about Bernard Tomic that screams ''young man still finding his way'', and plenty more that says ''yes, but really, Bernie?'' He is, somehow, still just 20, yet his annual list of controversies includes multiple tanking episodes, an official censure for hacking into the Wimbledon grass, the verbal Davis Cup rev-up from the normally undemonstrative Tony Roche, and, of course, a Davis Cup suspension that will become a voluntary boycott.

And that's without the hot spa hi-jinx or Australia Day driving dramas that led to police charges and a subsequent court appearance. All that in 2012, as what started so brightly with a fourth- round appearance at Melbourne Park became a busy, difficult, perplexing year.

But not, really, such an unusual one. Previous chapters have contained boastful forecasts about winning all four majors and reaching No. 1 by age 18, the Wimbledon practice snub as a 16-year-old of former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, the dad-demanded walk-off during a Futures event, the whining about being scheduled to play past his bedtime on Rod Laver Arena, and the regular - and, apparently, recurring - family threats to head back to Croatia.

Wildly entertaining copy, certainly, and there is something to be said for being who you are, no matter what that might be. Another, happier, theme has been Tomic's ability to - Wimbledon 2011 heroics aside - save his best efforts for home. The pre-teen talent, who became the early-to-mid-teen prodigy, then the youngest player in the top 200, 100 and 50, has won at least one match at each of his four Australian Opens. Somehow, the pressure that cripples Sam Stosur seems to energise the Gold Coaster known for his easy, laconic style.

''I won my first junior slam there and made my best results there growing up, and I feel that's where I play my best,'' says Tomic. ''I don't get pressure in Australia. It's different. I play [good] tennis, I know, because in December leading up to it I train my guts out, I work hard, and then it sort of dies throughout the year, [when] I don't have time.'' Adamant that his plans for a better and more-sparsely planned schedule in 2013 will assist his quest to regain the lost ground, and that overplaying in 2012 probably cost him 20 to 30 rankings places, Tomic has started superbly after a solid training block, recycling his old blacked-out Head racquet (despite, interestingly, an ongoing contract with Yonex), to clobber Tommy Haas, Andreas Seppi and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic at the Hopman Cup, then carry that good form past official Australian No. 1 Marinko Matosevic, Jarkko Nieminen and Italian third seed Andreas Sepp to reach his first ATP final in Sydney.

Djokovic is a fan, and long has been. The pair share Baltic bloodlines, Monte Carlo addresses and, occasionally, the practice court. But just as the defending Australian Open champion describes Tomic as a talented player with the potential to be a great one, he has already pointed out several times this summer that playing well on Aussie hardcourts is not his issue. ''Now it depends on him,'' Djokovic said in Perth. ''Everything has to come together in his mind, and he has to work, he has to be committed, and he has to play consistently well on all different surfaces in order to be a top-10 player.'' Tomic, whose issue has apparently been more the intensity of his practice and training sessions than the volume, acknowledges that it will take ''five times the work'' to succeed at senior level as he did so effortlessly in the juniors, and he appears to be responding well to a newly tweaked team that includes Spanish fitness expert Salvador Sosa.

Movement? Better. Serve? Vastly improved. Forehand? More topspin and margin for error. Tenacity, concentration, intensity and willingness to compete for every point? Too early to tell, really, but fingers crossed.

Uncertain, too, are relations between the Tomics and Tennis Australia, although they appear precarious. A one-tie Davis Cup suspension is set to stretch to at least a second fixture, voluntarily, as chilly relations with captain Pat Rafter reach freezing point. TA's new player-support structure has cut funding to most of its leading players, and Tomic's has been shelved until he resumes Davis Cup duty, if and when that may be. Which, frankly, may have been more of an issue had money not been so plentiful for the wealthy boy-wonder managed by giant IMG since the age of 13.

Public relations have always been problematic, however, and - not coincidentally - the controversial John Tomic lingers defiantly as the one enduring figure in his son's ever-changing entourage. For all the public and private urgings about the need for Bernard to engage an experienced coach to complete his tennis education, TA's head of professional tennis, Todd Woodbridge, does not see a major change coming any time soon. ''I think everybody would like it to happen. I think everyone would like to be able to see something firm put in place and stuck to and worked on,'' Woodbridge told Fairfax Media last week. ''Bernard and John have discussed it, but it's about trying to find the right person and committing to it. In any coaching relationship you've got to have a personal connection, coaching connection, respect - all of the things that an athlete needs to have to be able to accept the information that's given to them. I think [the Tomics] have got to be able to convince some of the best coaches that they are actually going to be able to do the job, because there are a lot of coaches out there who could bring some real positives to Bernard's game, but the Tomic camp has got to be able to listen to that information. So nothing will happen until both sides are able to agree on that.'' Is Woodbridge confident that if the right person is found, John would walk away? ''No, we should be realistic, too, and we're never going to see John do that because he's such an influence over Bernard, and I think he's an important influence. He's been the one constant throughout his career, so, under pressure, Bernard's always going to go back to John, and I expect that.

''In some ways, it's like any athlete that goes back to a coach - like Pat Rafter back to Tony Roche or even a Lleyton Hewitt back to Tony Roche. It's someone they know that when things are not quite right, that person can get them thinking clearly again, and I'm sure that would be the case for Bernard and John.'' Tomic understands the interest in his situation, and his progress, as well as the expectation that comes with being the best male player (apologies to Matosevic) in a nation that has produced so many greats. ''I've come to realise that everyone's looking out for you, wanting you to do good, and obviously when you're doing bad people try to figure out ways to help you,'' he says.

''But I feel like everyone's on your side and Australia wants you to do well, and sometimes when you're not doing well the pressure and heat can take it out of you, and I'm happy I'm learning through this curve. I wouldn't change anything, cos this is going to make me a better person … and [help me] if I want to become a better tennis player.'' He admits to being a victim of immaturity at times, and to doubts, of course, that all those grand predictions he has both repeated and been forced to adjust, would go unfulfilled. There have been moments in defeat - especially last year - that ''takes it out of you and makes you disbelieve'', he concedes. ''Everyone falls down,'' says Tomic, who is aware, nevertheless, that it is the getting back up that counts.

''People say 'look, getting to 27 in the world at my age was huge', but it didn't feel like that, I just felt like I was dragging myself out and playing all these tournaments and it's difficult to put in 100 per cent when you're playing so many matches and you've grown up really working hard and having time to really dedicate and work yourself to tennis. I'm beginning to find myself, find my feet. I'm beginning to find who I really am, and how to deal with things, but I think it's much more difficult at an early age to find all these things and work everything out, and then again when you see people saying some stuff it makes you think and wonder, and obviously there's always pressure involved, and whether you're No. 1 or 100 you're going to have pressure. I think only [in 2011] I didn't have any pressure because I was young and I didn't know what I was doing, I was 200 in the world and I felt like I could play good tennis, but I didn't know where it could take me.''

So now he knows, or at least has an idea. Having surged to a Wimbledon quarter-final at the age of just 18, then 27th in the world and two grand slam seedings by 19, he has tumbled back to No. 64 after a bundle of early losses, some family issues and a US Open capitulation against Andy Roddick that Rafter described as ''disgraceful''.

The upside is that Tomic now looks likely to come again; to the top 20 at least, and perhaps much higher.

So, if the rest of us are a little weary of reading - and writing - about Tomic for the wrong reasons, does he also get a little sick of reading about himself?

''Yeah, it's strange. It's not a good thing or a bad thing, it's a very strange thing,'' Tomic says. ''But I feel that whatever people say and stuff it's obviously a learning curve, and in a way it's probably not the best thing, why you're in the papers for driving your car the wrong way, or from what people think, but it's a learning curve, and I've come to learn what's happening. I feel that you can only stop learning when you die and I'm learning every day something, and that's important for me, and my tennis.''

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/tennis/human-headline-talent-to-bern-20130111-2clqv.html